A gift to the community? Public relations, public art and the news media

Abstract

The use of public art to regenerate former mining regions is now commonplace. This article assesses the function of public art within the public relations strategy of a mining company to facilitate planning and manage local opposition. A case study of the land sculpture, Northumberlandia (2012) and media-framing analysis demonstrate how corporately funded public art serves as a powerful public relations tool to justify the renaissance of surface coal mining. Media releases and more than 90 news items are analysed to understand PR strategies and media dynamics involved in representing the affected community. The article explains how public art functions as a public relations news framing device within a discourse of economic and cultural regeneration. Referring to the sculpture as a ‘gift to the community’, corporate public art claims a civic role. This preferred set of meanings is recycled in mainstream news as a process of ‘PR framing’ to circumvent local opposition.